Ashes and Fire
by Undeclinable
Summary: The Fire Throne was never meant for the weak, it was known. And the banished prince sought to claim it as was his right, but he needed to be tested by suffering, his father had been right in a way, he needed to be tested by fire and blood.


Hi to all potential readers, welcome to the new fanfiction project I have dared to begin (specially considering the insulting manner in which I abandoned all my other projects years ago). Also I inform you that I'm looking for a beta reader for this project (Native English speaker, excellent with grammar and spelling and knowledgeable of Avatar: The last airbender, it is desired but not necessary for him or her to be also interested in literature and or to have some sort of studies in the fields of literature or any closely related subject). Send me a PM if you are interested in the "job" (no, I won't pay you) with a small CV and a list and links of previous works as beta reader.

The usual disclaimer.

A warning: I am a very busy and lazy sort of man, do not expect this to be update regularly (unless I find a beta that can make me do so). And this is an AU, based completely on the universe of Avatar: The last airbender, but entirely focused on Zuko, in fact, if I can help it there won't even be an Avatar as an active character in this story.

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Prologue:

THE FIRE THRONE

It was said that the throne had been forged by the First Fire Lord, as a challenge to the decadent authority of the last tribal leaders of the Sun Warriors, it was said that the dragons had chosen the Fire Lord to stop their ridiculous ambitions of power, ambitions that had costed the lives of thousands of innocents, who had been crushed by the wars waged by each of those leaders in a series of savage attempts to control each other. It had been only at the heigh of the carnage that the dragons had deemed necessary to intervene in the struggle; first by refusing to aid any of the leaders of the Sun Warriors, then by openly siding with the Fire Sages, and their leader, the Fire Lord.

The old historians said that the Sun Warriors had become ambitious over the centuries, they had stopped caring about the balance Agni, the spirit of the Sun, the spirit of the Fire, had taught them; they had tasted power, the had tasted hate and fear, and they had been consumed by them, they had been consumed by their own fire.

Amid all the destruction the dragons had acted, they had called upon their last remaining ally in among the humans, they had called upon the Fire Sages; servants of Agni, and vouchers of the peace. The Fire Sages had pleaded the help of the Avatar, back in the time when the firsts Avatars had appeared into the world. But the Avatar has ignored their pleas.

No one knew why or when had the first Avatar been born into this world. All that was known was that the Avatar had had the total alliance of the spirits, and that he had been born only after the people of the world had mastered their power and their ability to control elements. The people had divided themselves into four great groups, according to their elements. And they had begun to fight their amongst themselves for dominance; there are no records of such an ancient time, but there still survive some testimonies of the cruelty and savagery that most have occurred, they can be found in the old songs of sadness and anger that even now are sung by the oldest of members of each nation, passed down for generations as traditional songs and tales. It was then that the first Avatar had appeared, and with a devastating display of his power had stopped the great old war, and had forbidden it forever to fight between the elements. But the first of the Avatars had been naïve, they believed that the origin of their hate had been their fear for the others power, and they had decided to let each nation solve their own problems amongst themselves.

The Earth Kingdom was the first to unify itself around a leader, the First Earth King, the great architect. A visionary that had travelled along the vast territory occupied by the earth benders, and had learned in the ancient city of Omashu the art of controlling the earth and used taught it to his people. He had gathered a vast amount of followers and he had given his ancient home town a wall, a wall that would protect his people from all enemies, a wall that would unify a kingdom, a wall that gave its great capital a name. He was crowned Earth King the day when all the opposing leaders and rulers of the earth benders had bent their knees to him, when all their attempts to oppose him ended in failure at the great wall of Ba Sing Se, the unification of the Earth Kingdom had come about, almost without bloodshed.

The air nomads had followed the Earth Kingdom in the most unlikely fashion, since they had never been unified in tribes or large groups, they had taken to live in the high mountains at the edges of the world; devastated by the horrors of the great old war, they had followed the teachings of the Avatars, and had sworn never to hurt others again. They accepted refugees from all corners of the world and acted as emissaries of peace, teaches of the humanity and recorders of the history.

The water tribes had a much different history, originally the water benders had lived in the North Pole, separated from the rest of the world, completely uninterested in whatever occurred in the other nations. Their memories bitter from their loses in the great old war, they secluded themselves in their own cold world, and devoted themselves to the adoration of Tui and La. It was only with great effort that the emissaries of the air nomads has been accepted into their world, and it took greater effort still for the leaders of the water tribe to listen to their teachers. A schism was bound to take place the moment some began to preach the teachings of the air nomads of peace, harmony and community among the world, while others refused to mingle with the strange messengers from the outer world. Had they not decided not to separate themselves as soon as the first fightings took place, a civil war wold have been unavoidable. Guided by the air nomads, their new students travelled south in search of a new home. Before they arrived to the opposite pole, a small group of the exiled tribe (as they were called) had separated, mesmerised by the beauty and variety of the nature of the Earth Kingdom, they decided to abandon their companions and took residence among the forests and swamps close to the eastern coast of the Earth Kingdom, too small and too primitive to be a threat to the earth benders, no one had opposed to them, no one had cared. The rest of the exiles, arrived safely to the South Pole, and with the help of the air nomads, they builded a great fleet and dedicated themselves to trading and fishing. It took thousands of years before the two water tribes contacted each other again, and even then, they never managed to form a solid relationship, their ideas and costumes had changed radically, the open mind of the south and the strong traditions of the north were never able to fully understand each other.

It was during the foundation of the Southern Water Tribe that the Sun Warriors began their intestine wars, and the Avatars refused to intervene, still to young to comprehend the full extent of the responsibilities that came with their power, too inexperienced perhaps; but here are those who claim hat they were also too arrogant and zealous of their power, and too attached to the spirit world to pay much attention to the dealings of the common folk.

The Fire Sages, followers of Agni, priests of the fire and the only organised group within the islands, that would later become the Fire Nation, were the only ones that had listened to the air nomads and from them they had learned the art of writing and reading and the teachings of the Avatar and the spirits. The keepers of the wisdom and councillors of the people, friends of the spirits and brothers to the air nomads had become desperate when the Avatar refused to intervene, they begged him to reconsider, they pointed to the deaths and the destruction that the wars were causing but still the Avatar held his ground.

The air nomads tried to convince the Sages to avoid direct confrontation, and wait for the Avatar to change his mind; but pressured by the carnage and suffering that spread across the land, the Sages turned to their original teacher, to Agni, and his messengers, the dragons. And Agni, the powerful and proud spirit who had given the sun as a present to the world and the fire as a present to the men, he who had never lowered himself to step on mortal ground, sending only his emissaries to earth, moved by the tears and blood spilled by those who misused his gifts, for the first and only time in the recorded history, decided to take an active role in the affairs of the mortals. No one knows why he didn't turn to the Avatar, or if he did, why he was refused. But all chronicles agree that he sent his dragons to the Sages and told them to choose one leader from among the Sages to take command of his armies.

After having being assembled the totality of the Fire Sages, the dragons began to dance around them, showing them techniques unknown to man, circling them with fire, they saw into their minds, they smelled their fear and searched for someone worthy of the task, for days, without water or food the Sages endured the test of fire, those too afraid or too weak fainted or suffered burns and were discarded. It was until the seventh day, that from the fire came a voice, the voice of Agni, it is the only registered memory of him having talked directly to any mortal man. He spoke to the only one of the Sages that stood still in the face of the fire.

"You, who has been through fire, you who has tamed the fire and has been tamed by it, shall now command it and in turn you will be commanded by it."

The rest of the Sages kneeled and hailed him as the leader of the Sages, voice of Agni and Fire Lord among the fire benders. This legendary meeting of the humans to be tested by the fire in the face of Agni, came to be known universally as the Agni Kai. Then the Fire Lord, followed by the Sages and the dragons went to stop the war. By using his power he woke the sleeping volcanoes and one by one destroyed the armies of those who opposed him. Until only a handful of Sun Warrior leaders remained, he called them and challenged them to a duel, a trial by fire to answer for their crimes. He defeated them and they were consumed by fire, he ordered their armies to give up their weapons and they bend their knees. The Fire Lord used their swords and spears and shields to forge the Fire Throne, in which he sat and he sent the Sages and the dragons to announce the victory and the arrival of the peace to the land.

All remaining tribes and clans came to him, and they bend their knees and acknowledged him as the voice chosen by Agni, tested by the fire, and leader of the Sages. For the first time, and after a thousand years of war, the fire benders were unified, the Fire Nation was born out of the ashes of fire and blood. The Sun Warriors were casted out of society, condemned to live in their ancient cities away from the new nation, and tasked with the protection of the Eternal Flame, ordered to wait until Agni spoke to them, thousands of years passed, but Agni never spoke, the Sun Warriors slowly faded from the memory of men and were cast into oblivion as they continued their eternal penance for the crimes of their ancestors.

For centuries the government of the Fire Nation was held in the hands of the council of Sages, guided by the Fire Lord, each one chosen by the fire after the death of his predecessor, but as the time went by, and the new nation stabilised other groups of power were born within the Fire Nation. The Fire Lord had originally permitted men of all classes to come the new nation as citizens, including slaves and freemen without distinction. In this the Fire Nation followed the air nomads, as they quickly abolished slavery. The Fire Lord established a complex bureaucratic system to control his new lands, and he chose from among his citizens those who had been educated as organisers and administrators of justice, education and tax control; out of this group the nobility was born, as those chosen for this administrative group were descendants of the old leaders and chiefs of the old clans. They held large amounts of land and they administered it or rented it, but they always saw trading and commerce with suspicion and despise, thinking it bellow themselves and as an unworthy manner of making a living. They desired power, but were kept from it by the council of sages. Even then, they commanded a great amount of loyalty and respect in the fields, as they had almost complete control of the agriculture and farming.

Then came the merchants and artisans, an offspring of the plebs, the trading across the nation and even among other nations had made them wealthy and influential, they had a tacit control of the cities, as they and their money decided which cities grew, but the ancient Fire Lords saw the danger of their growing influence and grew weary and careful of them, for they valued money and wealth above life, and as such their loyalty to the Fire Nation came into doubt when facing a choice between profit and their nation.

The plebs were the biggest and most humble of the four classes of the new nation, the Fire Lord had seen fit to divide the land equally so as to give all of his citizens a way to make a living, but as the centuries passed, the plebs began to loose their lands, as their properties were barely big enough for them to care for their families and sell some meagre remains to each other. A bad harvest, a fire, an accident, even an incompetent head of the family or a mistake in the administration, some times a single theft at the wrong time could send a family into despair and force them to sell their lands. Not to mention the damage a family dispute could cause. The nobles and the merchants quickly grew aware of this, and used their cunning, as well as their knowledge of the law and their superior resources to pressure the plebs, some even taking it into as far as sabotage. The merchants bought these lands and rented or sold them to the best possible owner, taking care of making as much profit as possible. While the nobles, still more far sighted and cunning than the merchants, offered the poor families without land the opportunity to keep their houses and lands and even get help and protection in times of need, in exchange they became bound and loyal to the noble who allowed them to cultivate the lands he had bought from them, and they helped their new master in any labour in which he required their help.

But not everyone was so fortunate or unfortunate, most went to the cities in search of a new life and opportunities, at the beginning a shaky balance was found between all this opposing forces, but as time passed, and the population grew and was left to fend against the capricious will of the weather, and the ambition of the most powerful noble lords and the richest of merchants the situation became unstable.

Also the once perfect coordination in which the council of Sages and the Fire Lord once worked had deteriorated as well. In the beginning, the methods and objectives of the ruler class, the religious leaders, had been one and the same, and they unanimously had acted in complete synchrony to archive their objectives. As was bound to happen, they faced disagreements and arguments, first concerning the methods, then concerning their objectives and at last, concerning the nature of their relationship. For instance one really knows when the title of Fire Lord became hereditary, no chronicles care to mention the exact familiar origin of the firsts Fire Lords, on the grounds that he was chosen by fire among the dance of the dragons; yet queerer still is the fact that no chronicles mention when the dance of the dragons and the trial of fire were abolished and replaced by a simple ritual of coronation made by the Sages, or even the exact intricacies of the old dynasties. All that we know is that by the beginning of the Pho Zel dynasty, the legendary tamers of the komodo rhinos, it was universally acknowledged that the Fire Lords were descended form a common father, and since no one outside from their direct descendants had taken or attempted to take the Fire Throne (either by claim or by force) everyone assumed, and perhaps correctly so, that it had always been that way, no one dared to question the will of Agni, neither did Agni himself or his dragons made any attempt to oppose the Fire Lords. The change in the names of the dynasties was owed simply to the fact that in the case of a Fire Lord was unable to produce a male heir, or had no direct male relatives, as a brother, cousin or uncle (being only five records of a Fire Lord being unable to do so in the history of the Fire Nation), his daughter would ascend the Fire Throne and her next immediate male descendant would begin another dynasty.

Slowly but surely the Fire Lord and the Council of Sages began acting on their own peace, sometimes even against each other. Both the Fire Lord and the Council, at some point in history, forgot the reason why they fought for power, and began concentrating on the power itself. The merchants and the nobles quickly began to use the confusion to their advantage, in order to gain influence, power and wealth they formed ever changing alliances to keep power away from the rest of the factions. All this struggle for power left the plebs in a very precarious position, left to fend for themselves and with no one of the other three controlling classes willing to give them aid out of charity or good will, they slowly ran out of options, with no work available, no lands and no other visible opportunity the turned to robbery and crime. Some became pirates inspiring fear in the hearts of both poor and rich who dedicated to trading. This social and political instability quickly turned to a large scale economic problem, with no one willing to give ground, the civil war began.

It was first the nobles who, backed by their large amount of land and human resources in the form of those peasants bounded to them, decided to ally themselves to their local group of corrupt Fire Sages and, backed by two members of the council, declared their independence. The Fire Lord answered with all the force he could muster; the war lasted two years, by the end of which, he barely managed to defeat the poorly equipped and trained, but well commanded and motivated pleb army of the nobles in the great battle Shu Jing. The nobles and the Sages with them were executed by fire, one by one was challenged to an Agni Kai by a very angry Fire Lord, and all of them were defeated by him. The message the nation received from this was clear: Agni still stood by the Fire Lord. And once again the Avatar had not intervened, but historians tend to forgive this particular case because at the time of the beginning of the civil war the current Avatar was four years old and she was born in the Northern Water Tribe, completely secluded from the outside world. Still the Fire Lords would never forget that in their times of need, they were abandoned by the Avatar, nor the fact that it had been his supposed spiritual advisors and guides in this world those who had sided with the nobles during the civil war.

The war had been devastating and gave the Fire Lord a great deal to work upon and to change. During the early stages of the war he was forced to address the problem of the plebs, not because of their political influence, but because of their status as a factor of instability and weakness. The laws of fire, passed down from the times of the First Fire Lord were clear, to be a soldier of the royal army, it was necessary to own a piece of land or a house; the reason being that a man who had something to love and to protect within the nation, was bound to serve and fight loyally to protect what was his. So the Fire Lord decided to punish more the nobility by modifying the law and creating a new concept: the expropriation or eminent domain. With it he took most of the land of the traitorous families and those whose loyalty was in doubt and gave those lands to the plebs so as to give them a living and to ensure their loyalty by making them liable to be called to arms for the royal army, and to sever their ties of loyalty to the nobles.

The war gave the Fire Lord a good motive, or excuse, to finally, separate legally and definitively the Council of Fire Sages from his own position as the Fire Lord. He took from them all official executive and legislative power and allowed them to remain only with the meagre part of judicial authority to dictate in civil matters and conflicts (with the only important task of crowning the next Fire Lord, but unable to object in any way to the heir), and a testimonial position of spiritual councillors to the Fire Lord and a non-binding position of political advisers to the crown but only when called upon. Still, despite what was written at this time in the laws of fire, the Council still kept a very considerable amount of political influence on the grounds of being the only authority to assist the Avatar, and the fact that the citizens of the Fire Nation still held them to be a part at least as important as the Fire Lord in the religious matter; they had been chosen by Agni too, to lead the people side by side with the Fire Lord. It took a few more centuries for Fire Lord Sozin to finally subjugate the Sages to the Fire Lord's rule.

The merchants had remained out of the conflict as much as possible, but they never had stopped trading neither with the royalists or with the rebels; but just in the end, when the tide seemed to be in favour of the Fire Lord, they had stopped trading with the rebels, and sabotaged their fragile economy, in a very decisive way, they had helped the Fire Lord and his army to avoid further bloodshed and to weaken enough his enemies so as to force them into a last desperate battle, less they ran out of food, money and medicine. This also made clear for the Fire Lord what his predecessors had always suspected, the merchants and their trading and economic tricks were far more powerful and subtle than what they looked, and he would do well to keep on their good side while trying, in the more subtle and quiet way possible, to keep them from gaining more power and influence as well as to make sure no group or faction of them gained enough economic power to try and force the Fire Lord into a full alliance in which, he knew, he would be at their mercy.

So the Fire Lord realised that real and loyal support to him could only come from two sources, both based on the semi divine origin of his power, and both connected to each other: the army and the plebs. Yet the vacuum of power left by the now reduced Council of Fire Sages, left the succeeding Fire Lords the necessity of forming a new governmental structure to replace the council. So they decided to surround themselves with the small families of nobles that had remained loyal to the crown and the heads and generals of the army, and created the Great Fire Council, composed by those nobles loyal and military leaders as well as a few representatives of the people, chosen form among the merchants and plebs (all secretly selected by the Fire Lord himself, via a method of selection based on a system of power balance, favouring those merchants and nobles whose factions and resources where too weak to threaten or challenge the crown but still strong or influential enough to be able to struggle and keep at bay the power and influence of factions that had grown too powerful).

Concerning the Avatar, the Fire Nation never fully trusted him, and accepted to aid him only because the firsts Fire Lords had never opposed him, and the Fire Sages had always remained loyal to him and each generation had aided the Avatar in his task of keeping balance in the world. Still the always bitter memory of the failure of the Avatar to aid them in their times of need and the fact that in the very few conflicts with other nations the Avatar seemed to take their side based on their apparent disadvantages compared to them, or the fact that the Avatars were always less reluctant to intervene in conflicts with less developed countries such as the water tribes or the new cities in the Earth Kingdom, was taken as a slight by plebs, merchants, nobles and the Fire Lord; still the Sages remained loyal to him, and as time passed and their political power dwindled, they became more and more responsible and mature in their acting. It must be said that the role Avatar Kyoshi played a few centuries later by killing Chin the Great had been celebrated throughout the Fire Nation, it was no small rumour that Chin had planned to begin a full scale invasion to the adjoining lands as soon as he conquered the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Lord had been specially fearful of what could happen in such a situation.

It was this fear what forced the crown to consider the real possibility of an invasion, and the Fire Lord began to make the necessary defence preparations and began to amass and train a defence force, originally meant only to be called upon in case of an emergency. But by then a new trouble had risen; the population had been growing steadily fast for the last few hundredths of years, the cities were overwhelmed, the fields barely produced enough to sustain the growing population, and despite the recent and important advances in medicine and technology which allowed them to travel and trade with other nations, it was not enough. Mainly because the other nations were still to primitive and underdeveloped to produce enough to trade, and in most cases the rest of the nations were too distrustful or too poor, and socially and ideologically incapable still of organising themselves into a society more consumer based. The water tribes still made their clothing out of the skins of turtle seals, too slow to make and too expensive and uncomfortable to be of any use for Fire Nation citizens. The Earth Kingdom was still divided and competing within itself since the Earth Kings of Ba Sing Se had become weak and incompetent, allowing charismatic leaders such as Chin the Great to rise to power. And they were too proud of their earth bending and traditions to accept machines and tools and techniques of irrigation to help them in with their crops, or too accept the creation of manufacturing industries, especially if metal was involved.

The air nomads always gracious, generous and kind, send help, but very limited, and they too, helped those too weak first. And since they practically lacked any sort of earthly ambition and were educated to suffer and resist the vicissitudes of time with a happy form of stoicism, they had little motivation to begin caring for things such as wealth or economy when it didn't immediately helped those in need.

All of this, was contrary to the ideology of the Fire Nation; always trusting themselves and their strength and intelligence, always ready to create or develop ways to make everything more easy and simple, always following their passion and ambition, and for too long raised in the shadow of their past, in which they had had to fight and survive for themselves without the so beloved Avatar, a past which had showed them once and again that it was their inner strength and valour and courage what had gained the favour of the Agni, the Sun and Fire. That which allows light, reason and life to exists; the source of passion and all that motivates men. And also, they lived in the shadow of their own ambition.

It was Fire Lord Zhan, father of Sozin who first tried to reach an economical agreement with the other nations while he was still the crown prince. Motivated by the great economic growth and prosperity that his nation enjoyed and the incredible technological advances that had allowed them to create a fleet four times that of the Southern Water Tribe and capable of withstanding the worst of storms, and with an enormous capacity for transportation of goods and long rage travelling, as well as pressured by the always growing problems caused by the expanding population and the lack of space, lands and food for his people young prince Zhan travelled the world in search of opportunities and business partners. Despite his legendary diplomatic skills he was unable to convince any nation of changing their lifestyle and traditions, he was refused in his most desperate attempts to acquire or rent lands in the Earth Kingdom and barely tolerated when he asked the water tribes for permission to fish in large scale in their waters. Despite what he offered, either taxes, compensations in money or by giving a reasonable percent of the goods acquired, he was always refused. As he took the case to Avatar Kyoshi, she had simply limited herself to say that the four nations were free to do with their goods and lands as they wished, and no one could force them against their will otherwise.

Prince Zhan accepted the Avatar's judgement and returned to the Fire Nation, were he lived the rest of his days as a good ruler and tried his best to resolve whatever problems arose during his reign. It was his son, Sozin, who began the great war. After another unsuccessful attempt to convince Avatar Roku, his childhood friend and a nobleman born and raised in the Fire Nation, who knew the problems and difficulties, Sozin, decided that for the well being of his people he had to take action in his own hands, even if the rest of the nations and the Avatar refused to see his reasoning. He raised and army and conquered a small portion of almost inhabited land in the north of the Earth Kingdom, the city he conquered was named Yu Dao. Avatar Roku intervened and stopped his colonisation plan, destroying the royal palace and threatening the Fire Lord's life as well; it was thanks to his status as a nobleman and with the support of the Council of Sages that Avatar Roku managed to keep Sozin and his ambitions at bay, while he lived.

The records indicate that Avatar Roku died while battling with a volcano on his home island on the eastern side of the Fire Nation. After his passing Fire Lord Sozin quickly gathered his supporters and overthrew the Council of Fire Sages, executing those who refused his leadership, on grounds of treason to the crown and the Fire Nation. It was easy to convenience the merchants and nobles of his project, as they would be the biggest beneficiaries of it; but it took al of his charisma, all his persuasion skills and an unparalleled campaign of propaganda to convince the plebs and the lower rankings of the army of the necessity of war. In the end, the promise of lands, fortunes an a better life for their families was what tuned the tide in Sozin's favour.

Sozin had been smart and cunning beyond legend, patient as no fire bender ever before him. With the arrival of the comet he took out the air nomads and began one of the most successful military campaigns in history, surpassed only by that of his son Azulon, and his great conquests. It was now Azulon who sat in the Fire Throne as his forefathers before him, it was now his duty to end what had begun almost a hundred years ago, a task to which he had dedicated all of his life, a task which had taken from him friends and subjects. And now as he sat hearing the terrible news, he wondered just for a moment of all of it had been worth it. If perhaps there had been no way to avoid such loses, but a quick reflection of what had been sacrificed already pushed those doubts away; really too much had been lost, stopping now would be an unforgivable insult to his family, his subjects, his soldiers, his nation. He looked at the messenger that had entered into his throne room just a few minutes ago, a messenger which had been received by applause and joy, everyone in his war meeting, including himself had expected him to bring the long awaited and desired news of victory. The news that informed him that his son Iroh, his love and pride, had crushed the legendary walls of Ba Sing Se, the same way that he had crushed the last dragon from the earth all those years ago, and for which he was called The Dragon of the West. The crown prince of the Fire Nation, Lord commander of the royal navy and High General of the royal army. The undefeated Iroh, they called him, not once had he been defeated in battle, a genius at choosing when and where to fight, just as his father had been at how to destroy the morale of his enemies.

Finally old Fire Lord Azulon sighted and, slowly, almost painfully said.

"Is this confirmed information, soldier? Did you see the body yourself?" Asked Azulon.

"Yes, sir. Colonel Liang personally ordered me to report immediately to you sir. General Iroh, sir, if I may... he looked devastated. I was also to inform you that the council of generals under General Iroh is debating the possibility of withdrawing, sir" The messenger himself looked afraid of what he had just said. The murmurs among the generals in the throne room startled him even more. The slow and incredulous "Nonsense!", or "His majesty Iroh wouldn't allow such a defeat even in this situation" that was heard between the generals slowly began a discussion among the council of generals.

"Silence!" screamed Fire Lord Azulon, the flames around his dais rising almost to the ceiling, his voice still held the low and rash accent which had tormented the sleep of his enemies and inspired fear in those who faced him. He waited for a moment and saw the fear and respect he still commanded.

"If my son believes he's had enough bloodshed for now, so be it. He has already done more than could be expected of him, he has single handedly defeatet and destroyed the eastern and western armies of the Earth King. He has reduced their once so proud navy to ashes. He has won for us the control of the sea western to the Serpent's pass and he has managed to held a siege of the largest and most protected city in the world while being surrounded by enemies and still he managed to break through their outer walls!" Fire Lord Azulon was screaming at this point, he took a long breath and said. "And he has lost his only son to battle, a battle he fought for the love of his nation. When he returns he will be received as the war hero he is. And as soon as the funerals for my grandson, prince Lu Ten are over, he'll immediately take possession the Fire Throne" He said, and he looked at his councillors and generals, none uttered a word, they all bowed.

"Soldier, you are dismissed" commanded the Fire Lord, he was far too old and tired for this kind of news. "I have already made the necessary preparations for my son's coronation. The High Sage has already received the orders and the new Sage Shyu, will be in charge of the preparation of the ceremony."

The Fire Lord paused for a moment and said. "Councillor Pindao".

"At your command your highness" said a middle aged man, bearded and with a tanned skin unusual for a natural of the Fire Nation.

"Go immediately to Admiral Jeong Jeong, tell him he is relieved of his duties as of now. Prince Iroh had already spoken to me regarding his possibly transition team before he left. He said clearly that Admiral Jeong Jeong would be his best choice for the post of War Minister, tell him he is to begin a comprehensive analysis of our military situation, which he will present before this council as soon as my son Iroh is crowned and he is appointed War Minister" Fire Lord Azulon held Lord Pindao in view, he had been appointed to the council by Iroh's express request, he had done an excellent job; old Fire Lord Azulon smiled, his son had chosen his friends and allies well, now he only lacked and heir. "Dismissed Councillor Pindao" He said, and watched as the best swordsman in the Fire Nation left the room.

"Councillor Sun" he almost whispered as he looked at his oldest and must trusted advisor.

"Yes, your highness?" said the old man, somehow his carefree eyes had always managed to prevent Azulon from throwing a tantrum, even when they were young.

"I have heard that you've made arrangements with Princess Ursa regarding the marriage between my grandson and your granddaughter, is that correct?" Asked the Fire Lord, he had been keeping an eye an all the marriage negotiations which princes Ursa had been working on.

"None entirely your highness, princess Ursa has decided that when the time comes it will be prince Zuko's decision, but we have come to an agreement with Lord Lee, one of his daughters is to be sent on daily basis with princess Azula and my granddaughter to the royal gardens, to facilitate their friendship you see. And to see if prince Zuko takes any interest in either of them." His wrinkles moved in a manner similar to those of an elephant-camel when he smiled as he finished his explanation.

"I see, if it must be so, then so be it. But I wanted, Lord Sun, to charge you with the task of finding an appropriate wife for my son Iroh, he'll need an heir now. But I am not an insensitive man, please do so with the outmost discretion, Lu Ten's death must not be seen as something that can be dealt with by giving my son a new wench. Take all the time you… and my son need, do not mention this to him until he's ready, do not pressure him." Asked Fire Lord Azulon, with his dark commanding voice, but in his eyes, the old Lord Sun, saw that his eyes were filled with sadness and compassion.

"If I may suggest you highness, I hope I'm not being too daring. But General Iroh never took marriage too seriously, if I may be excused for the comment, until his son was born he paid almost no mind to his wife. I think he'll be reluctant to take another. Still the effort must be made, but Fire Lord Sozin always said that a plan B must always be prepared. In case General Iroh refused to take on a wife immediately, the nobles and generals will begin to present him with candidates, which in turn is likely to make him even more reluctant to make a decision, I believe we could avoid this problem by having General Iroh adopting and heir, perhaps young prince Zuko, or maybe princess Azula?… That would dissuade the pretenders from bothering General Iroh until he's ready to remarry. An in turn would give us an heir, descendant directly from the royal line in case General Iroh proved too reluctant to take another wife, but still let's hope it does not come to that" Old Lord Sun always managed to give good advise, or so thought the Fire Lord Azulon, he hoped something of it passed onto his son, from what he'd seen of Lord Sun's son, he could only tell that he was clumsy and slow to learn.

"Very well, your advice is always well received Lord Sun. Take care to inform prince Ozai and General Iroh of the procedure, begin with the paperwork and the ceremony for the adoption as soon as possible, have Sage Shyu take care of the necessary procedures and inform the Council of Sages of the adoption. Tell them General Iroh will adopt prince Zuko as his son an heir. All of you are dismissed." Stated Fire Lord Azulon and watched as all of his generals and councillors abandoned de room.

For the first time in many years Fire Lord Azulon became aware of how alone he was in his dais, separated from the rest of the world, chained by it, imprisoned by all his responsibilities. He missed his son, and wished he could be with him now, thousands of miles away, to console him. He too, feared what would happen if something happened to Iroh, and for that he had decided to crown him as soon as he arrived, perhaps he still could manage to see his son smile from the bottom of his heart one last time. As he realised there were tears running down his face Fire Lord Azulon quietly whispered.

"No father should ever have to bury his son". And once again Fire Lord Azulon felt alone, alone and cold, surrounded by power and flames; he sighted as he stood up and left the Fire Throne, wishing he had never seated on it.


End file.
